Raith Rovers hit 20-win mark ahead of play-offs with 5-0 demolition of Arbroath

The Borderer’s 82nd-minute close-range shot, from a Callum Smith assist, after being brought on as a 68th-minute substitute for Shaun Byrne, was the last of 89 conceded by the Angus side on their way back to Scottish League 1, following two by Smith, on 21 minutes and 25, and two Lewis Vaughan penalties, on 56 and 79.

Friday’s result at Raith’s Stark’s Park home ground, in front of a crowd of 3,357, didn’t matter a jot to either side other than taking the Fifers up to the 20-win mark, with Arbroath’s fate having been long since sealed and their hosts unable to improve on their second-best placing in the division but out of reach of third-placed Partick Thistle.

Manager Ian Murray’s hosts finish the regular season with 69 points from 36 fixtures, exactly three times their bottom-placed visitors’ tally of 23.

Friday’s pre-play-offs swan-song did offer an opportunity for a bit of shooting practice ahead of going up against either Partick or Airdrieonians for a shot at promotion, however, and Raith took full advantage, making the most of their 62% possession to fire a dozen at visiting goalkeeper Max Boruc’s net, eight of them on target.

Only three went the other way, two of them on target, and home goalkeeper Kevin Dabrowski kept them all out to record his fourth clean sheet on the bounce and 15th of the season in all competitions.

Murray, 43, was as pleased by his side’s clean sheet as he was by their scoring prowess at the other end of the park, telling Raith TV afterwards: “It was really good, with high quality from us.

“From the first minute, we showed impetus in the game in terms of attacking. We played at a much better tempo.

“We had really good width. We stretched the game width-wise really, really well and with Callum Smith up front, we know we’ve got a willing runner to stretch the game’s length as well.

“Overall, I’m really happy. As a manager, I couldn’t have asked too much more of the players going into the final regular game of the season than to come out with a 5-0 win. It’s great.

“There wasn’t a player on the park who should be disappointed with their performance. I thought they all did really, really well and that was reflected in the scoreline.

“If we were being really pernickety and greedy, we could probably have scored a couple more, but I was equally pleased with the clean sheet as I was with the five goals.”

Looking ahead to this month’s play-offs, Murray added: “It’s going to be tough.

“They’re going to be really hard games regardless of who we’re playing and that’s just the first set of matches. To get through them would be great because we’d then go into the final and anything can happen.

“We’ll need to play at that level and we’ll need to play at that tempo. That’s a pleasing aspect for me in that I know we’ve still got it in us.

“For the last three or four games we’ve been really solid and that’s told by the clean sheets, but we have to do it again. That’s football.”